Seth 411
Introduction to the Concept of Belief Versus Faith
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
8:47 PM
Seth… Good evening, a pleasure to have all of you here again with me this evening. Before we start, I am aware that Kaetorina will have a question. Good luck.
Stephanie… Question or statement?
Seth… Go ahead.
Stephanie… Okay if you want it to be a question, I will phrase it as a question. Can you explain how you stated something to the effect of success in a belief system is never as good as failure in a faith system?
Seth… That isn’t the real question, but we shall move along with that as it is.
I would like to tell you all a little story… You have a problem?
Jasmine… No. (Jasmine said something about it being difficult to take notes with a story.)
Seth… An elderly gentleman is an excellent carpenter and has been working for this firm for at least forty years. There comes a time when he decides that it is necessary for him to retire. His boss, the owner of the firm states to him, would he please be kind enough to stay on and build one more home. He doesn’t really want to, but he agrees to do so. In his endeavors to finish the job he takes many short cuts and does inferior work. He rushes through but he is good at what he does so none of the other workers or his boss notice that he is not performing up to his standards. The day finally arrives that he has completed the home and all his work is done. His boss had decided that he is going to give our carpenter a retirement party and does so. Towards the end of the party the boss comes over and makes a speech and he congratulates him on all his years of effort and work and the boss states clearly what a wonderful worker he has been and as a present to him he hands him the keys to the last house that he has built. The carpenter is overcomed with emotion. He is consumed with his failure to perform adequately. He knows that he will have to redo much of his own shoddy work, yet he has to live with himself knowing how he performed on his last job.
The question here arises; it is quite true that when one has success in a belief system it is often obvious that they would have been better off with failure in a faith idea or system.
We are now going to go ahead, and we are going to ask each of you to give your definition of success. Betty, would you like to go first?
Betty… I’m still thinking, accomplishing a goal.
Seth… Accomplishing a goal. Frank, and then you may pass it around.
Frank… Promoting one’s self in an endeavor or in something they wish to do.
Jasmine… Following the path you have chosen whether it be a positive or negative one.
Seth… I said success Jasmine, not failure.
Jasmine… Well, you can be successful if you chose you were going to come back as a louse and you were a louse that’s successful. You said that numerous times. Have you not?
Seth… Yes, but that is not the essence of the question itself.
Stephanie… I think it is a subjective view of the person where they feel, I think happy, I’ll use the word happy about some kind of an outcome.
Seth… We shall now go around without repeating on the negative aspect of what you said. How do you define failure? Betty?
Betty… The perception of not accomplishing a goal.
Seth… The perception of not accomplishing a goal.
Frank… Making a mistake, not being able to reach what it was you are
trying to reach.
Jasmine… Not accomplishing what you set out to do.
Stephanie… Perceiving something that turned out not to be the way one desired it.
Seth… It is interesting to note here that your ideas of success and failure leave a great deal to be desired. When you are dealing with a belief system, I have clearly stated that it is a closed idea; there is a beginning middle and end.
Jasmine… A closed idea?
Seth… Yes. Since it is a closed idea, success within this framework itself is limited even if it brings you what you consider great joy or happiness. In a belief system one tends to have similar experiences that repeat themselves over and over again. Examples of this may be seen with the idea of a person who enjoys a specific type of food. They will have that same dinner innumerable numbers of times. At first the dinner was magnificent but as points of reference go by that same dinner even if it is made in the same restaurant or home starts to lose something and in reality, that something is enjoyment. So that success that one had in that belief system waned. The lack of enjoyment creeped in and surpasses the success of the original dinner. The same may be said of a baseball fan or any sports fan who enjoys and has/feels success in their team and their players’ efforts. After awhile it is obvious that they no longer take the thrill out of watching their team win, they didn’t win by enough, they were lucky to win and again in a belief system their success fades away.
On the other hand, in a faith system the meal that was not adequate or even downright distasteful, such as part of your fish dinner this evening, Kaetorina, gives one pause for thought. It allows you to have the ability to have faith that even if the restaurant was successful in other aspects, you may change and promote yourself by not ordering that dish again or better yet suggesting that changes be made in the way the dish was prepared. The sports fan in a faith system where their team has not won the pennant for ninety years takes great pride in every win but overlooks most of their losses. It is the failure within a faith system that allows one to make changes in the way in which you approach any given situation. In other words, you are not locked in situations. In other words, you are not locked into a specific line of thought or attitude. You become flexible, which is the second idea of belief and faith. In belief systems there is only room for success, there is one specific point of view. You do not have the ability to look at the world with sets of different eyes. When you read the other book Kaetorina, that I had given you and the man through whom I speak has finished it, that is one of the large issues that you must be aware of. It is the inability within a belief system to be flexible that causes most individuals to become upset when things do not go their way.
In a faith system flexibility is paramount. The idea of failure is a key to progress and change. If something is not of your liking, then you may have the ability to change it. If something does not work, you will have the ability to research and solve a problem. It is the ability to be flexible that will allow you to make progress and make yourself prosper in any given endeavor. It is the idea that failure is not the give all and end all to a specific idea, situation or problem. In a belief system you do not have this ability. In most situations, especially in faith-based ideas one must learn to be decisive by choice. Please note that being decisive by choice does not mean that you are inflexible. One must learn to make a decision and once that decision is made one should follow that idea to its ultimate conclusion. When one constantly wavers and shifts their opinion one cannot make progress. In the above idea it is clear that one is afraid to be wrong! These individuals tend to shift with the blowing winds. They accomplish very little for themselves. Change is difficult for them since they do not have a firm footing in reality. When one is decisive one is then able to look at your own history so that you may give yourself the best choices possible. Is your history one of success or do you have routinely permitted yourself to fail? Do you wallow in what could have been? Do you become angry when others do not live up to your expectations? When one is able to give themselves the best options you have freedom to fail or to succeed. I have often said that the greatest gift a parent can give to a child is the ability to fail. This lecture itself clearly demonstrates why those ideas are mandatory for all parents. What this does is to allow a child as well as yourself to zero in, to focus carefully on your best choices. If you follow the idea, you have become decisive. You are going to make a decision; you are then going to look at your history to look for and to see repeatable patterns that are successful or not successful. You are then going to open yourself up so that you may make prosperous decisions, your best choices in simplistic terms. (The pace was fast, and Seth was asked to repeat.) You are then going to open yourself up or in simplistic terms give yourself the best choices and in doing so you will then be able to focus in on those choices that you deem profitable.
Remember it should be noted that failure along the way does not prevent success at the end. Lastly, in a faith system it is mandatory that one never rests upon past accomplishments. If you do so you are then closing your system from faith to belief and this is a dangerous practice that many individuals partake in due to the fact that they believe that their success will follow them. It is necessary that all individuals learn to keep moving forward. If you have success in one technique do not become involved with the idea that techniques are the answer to your problem. A technique is a guide. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE to push yourself forward and not rely on a past idea. It is necessary that each individual learn to create for themselves. When one uses techniques without imparting your own creation to that technique one is in a belief system. You believe the technique will work.
Jasmine… You want to put your own creation on it?
Seth… Yes. Failure will lead you to create anew. It will give you the ability to keep moving forward. Long range success is based upon having faith in yourself that you can create what you need to achieve your ultimate goals.
Before we take our break a few minor bits of housekeeping: anyone who is not here this evening will not be able to get this lecture, and I mean anyone.
Second, since our friend Frank has volunteered to do the typing, you have three weeks to do the typing.
I believe at this point we shall take a break.
(9:30 P.M.)
Seth… Let us continue. Let me state this: each individual is constantly faced with difficulties and therefore the decision to solve these difficulties must be brought to light. When one only accepts success as profitable, the failure that eventually ensues is catastrophic. The old expression “it is necessary to learn from one’s mistakes” is profitable when you have faith in yourself that you can find a solution to your problems. That solution is the key to change if one is open to the idea that the routines that you have established are not necessarily acceptable at this new point of reference.
Are there any questions?
Stephanie… Can you just define “belief” and then “faith”?
Seth… Define belief and faith in terms of what?
Stephanie… What is a belief and what is faith?
Seth… A belief simply put is something that you can feel, see, touch, hold onto, manipulate whereas faith is invisible. It has no substance yet, in reality it is the strongest force on the physical plane. Does that give you some help?
Stephanie… Yes.
Jasmine… I don’t see how a belief can be felt and touched? It’s not concrete, it’s not…
Seth… A belief is always something. If you have belief, Jasmine in yourself, you can feel, you can touch, you can motivate yourself. If you have a belief in someone else, it is that person that you have belief in. If you have belief within…
Jasmine… So, it’s a belief in something?
Seth… Always but you have faith in something too. Remember you are very literal.
Frank… What about belief in God versus faith?
Seth… If you truly have belief in The All That There Is…
Frank… Then you have faith.
Seth… That is faith. If you have belief that God will help you what happens if he doesn’t?
Frank… Right, how is that something that you can touch and manipulate though?
Seth… Your belief in God gives you something. He will give me strength. He will give me an ability to do something.
Frank… That’s what you can accomplish.
Seth… That’s what you can accomplish.
Jasmine… The belief in something not the belief in self that can be touched?
Seth… An idea cannot be touched by your definition either, but they are just as factual.
Are there any other questions?
Stephanie… So, this is connected to why being results oriented is a huge problem.
Seth… That is correct, a results oriented individual requires positive or success in terms of results in terms of the ending of that difficulty.
Jasmine… Requires what?
Stephanie… Positive results or success.
Jasmine… Positive results.
Seth… Do you understand, Frank?
Frank… Ah, I am going to ask a specific question.
Seth… Go ahead.
Frank… Using the example of practicing the psy-time exercise you gave last week…
Seth… Send yourself love all day long.
Frank… I have and I…
Seth… Let’s ask a simple question. Betty, have you sent yourself love every morning all day long?
Betty… No.
Seth… Interesting; no for Jasmine as well. Most times no for Kaetorina.
Frank… Yes, for Jerry and yes for me.
Seth… Not so much for the man through whom I speak either.
Frank… Well, he said he had.
Seth… Well, he had, he has since let it go.
Frank… Okay. I have and up until just today I was going to ask the question how do I know I am getting any results? And then I was typing material, and I saw that technique, that it really it has to do with giving you resolve to deal with whatever things and maybe has done that. I just have not been able to grasp that it actually works for me, like Jerry. Jerry he can feel it at twelve o’clock because he senses it, I cannot.
Seth… Why do you have to feel anything to know that you are sending yourself love every hour on the hour?
Frank… Well, I know I am sending it in the morning but if I don’t feel like I am receiving it?
Seth… How do you know?
Frank… I don’t. So, I feel like I may be doing it, how do I know I am not doing it incorrectly?
Seth… Once you’ve done it, it is automatically correct. You can’t do it incorrectly.
Frank… Because of the definition of the technique itself, it does not matter.
Seth… It does not matter.
Jasmine… I think maybe what you are confusing that you are not recognizing it. In other words, two o’clock comes and you are not saying, “Oh two o’clock right, I’m sending myself love now, I am going to picture myself hugging myself. Two o’clock comes you forget about it, three o’clock.
Frank… I’m not necessarily feeling like a “poof”!
Jasmine… No but I think it’s because you are not remembering.
Seth… That is a belief system you are dealing with, I believe in a technique. You don’t have faith in it.
Frank… Correct.
Seth… That’s the problem.
Frank… That’s why I am asking the question.
Seth… There is no question you have your answer.
Frank… (Laughs, not understandable.)
Seth… That is why you are going to type the session.
Frank… I already knew I was typing this session (Stephanie laughing.) two hours ago.
Seth… No, you volunteered.
Frank… I did not volunteer.
Seth… In fact, the truth of the matter is…
Frank… I was willing to do it.
Seth… I was going to assign it to the man through whom I speak but as long as you volunteered you might as well.
Frank… I mentioned it, that’s not volunteering but that’s…
Stephanie… According to him it is.
Frank… Apparently, it is. What if I had just thought it, and never (Laughing.) said anything?
Seth… You volunteered.
Frank… Okay.
Stephanie… I just want to say if I send in psy-time the love that counts as well? Right.
Frank… Counts as what?
Stephanie… So, I sent it. I sent it for two weeks straight.
Frank… You sent it every day?
Jasmine… Are you feeling reprimanded?
Seth… It’s every morning you do it and you don’t do it every morning as a routine.
Stephanie… Right but let’s just say.
Seth… If I sent it once every… If I say I am going to send myself love every hour on the hour for the rest of my existence on the physical plane.
Stephanie… Well, I didn’t do that.
Seth… That’s what you’re stating and that will not work.
Stephanie… So, the two weeks didn’t work?
Seth… No. It doesn’t work like that.
Stephanie… Well how long will it work for, two days?
Seth… No, you have to do it and reinforce that about yourself. It is the doing it that reinforces it. Good try.
Frank… Since I am typing this, I can talk a lot. (Laughs.) The further quandary that I was in or not in is that with the idea of “How would a prosperous man act?” has been very successful.
Seth… Because you constantly reinforced the universe to say this man believes that he is prosperous therefore prosperity will be there for him. In whatever that means whether it be a monetary prosperity whether it be happiness prosperity whether it be in feeling good about one’s self prosperity. You don’t question that yet the love that you send yourself every morning is connectable to that which you have sent out.
Frank… Well, that was my point, I wasn’t sure if it was a combination.
Seth… Do not look to walk into trees here, just move along. No buts.
Frank… Okay, related, actually similar question, I have a patient who actually I discussed with Jerry who has a love problem, not being loved as a child but she is very spiritual. And she…
Seth… Why do you say that that individual…
Frank… Has a love problem?
Seth… No is spiritual?
Frank… She states that she has a belief in Buddhism.
Seth… Doesn’t make you spiritual.
Frank… She chants, she has an interest in some of those concepts so that is all I mean. She has an interest in that. So, she has practiced “How would a prosperous woman act?” This is a woman with a lot of problems. Now on the outside she has been able to not act out which is a big, big step for her but underneath and some of her being able to do this has reinforced her own disappointment and feeling broken in a sense. So, my understanding of that is my work with her, well she should continue that and I’ll have to reinforce or work on these belief systems underneath to help her change what she feels towards self.
Seth… And your question is? So far you have made no question.
Frank… If she were to continue to just say (Asking the universe.) “How would a prosperous woman act?” Would it possibly trickle down to those belief structures, change?
Seth… Of course. The more you are prosperous here on the outside the more you will reflect towards yourself and inner being.
Frank… Is it…
Seth… Aren’t you glad you are not typing? (Stephanie laughs.)
Frank… I wouldn’t be doing this.
Seth… Maybe we should eliminate the computing machine.
Frank… Is that an absolute?
Seth… Nothing is absolute.
Frank… I mean there are some things that would change. She would not just necessarily change?
Seth… Why not.?
Frank… It seems so easy.
Seth… A prosperous individual is always open to change. A prosperous individual looks to make things different.
Stephanie… ` What’s the difference with the (Unclear) and sending yourself love and whatever and “How would a prosperous woman act?” What is…
Seth… Sending yourself love is the strongest bit of enjoyment that one can have depending upon how you as an individual define the idea or word “love”.
Stephanie… So “How would a prosperous woman act?” won’t help you to feel love in the way that sending would?
Seth… It may not.
Stephanie… But that’s prosperous.
Seth… It will trickle down to that aspect. It usually does but when you send yourself love and you learn to love self then you are prosperous, and you make your own prosperity greater.
Stephanie… It reinforces the idea.
Seth… Correct.
Stephanie… Could you comment on the idea of expectations and how expectations play a role in the belief and faith?
Seth… Expectations are usually a negative aspect of one’s existence. It is in reality saying I expect this to happen. What you are really stating is I want this to occur.
Stephanie… Right, so that is a belief.
Seth… That is a belief system and wanting leaves you with nothing.
Stephanie… Right.
Seth… When you expect something and it occurs you are very happy. When you expect something and it does not occur then you have nowhere to go because that is within a belief system. I expect it or believe this would occur.
Stephanie… Where would you place your dreams… where would you place dreams? You know the idea of one should never not have…
Seth… Where you should place your dreams?
Stephanie… dreams and that’s a piece of expectation a little bit.
Frank… No.
Seth… Your dreams that you have every single time that you are asleep?
Stephanie… No not that.
Seth… Your dreams of, oh I would dream to win the lottery. That is an expectation.
Stephanie… Okay, but when you said never give up your dreams.
Seth… Never give up meaning never going to give up trying to become and achieve what I would like to achieve, those are your dreams.
Jasmine… Never give up your faith.
Seth… Or never give up your faith. I am trying to use different words here, Jasmine.
Jasmine… But expectations are so opposite to dreams. It’s not the same thing.
Seth… That’s right expectations, Jasmine are opposite to dreams.
Jasmine… You set yourself up for disappointment with expectations.
Seth… That is correct; you are disappointed when your expectations do not come through.
Frank… Then that is the idea of (Not audible.)
Seth… Correct that is the idea of being in play.
Yes, Kaetorina?
Stephanie… Right so the idea of never give up on your dreams, the idea of that prosperity…
Seth… Remember don’t rest on your past expectation. My dream is to become better. My dream is to accomplish more. My dream is…
Stephanie… More abstract and open in that kind of a direction.
Seth… Correct.
Frank… No one has a dream that you could solve in one day necessarily. It wouldn’t be much of a dream. Like if you are expecting it, you know…
Stephanie… No, but you know people whose idea, “Oh, how would I see my future,” what they would see in their mind’s eye.
Frank… But you could approach those dreams in a more flexible manner.
Stephanie… Right, it is still somewhat an attainment of some kind of a… fixed idea.
Frank… And that’s why sometimes they get into trouble. Like for example say, “Oh my dream is, I want to publish a self-help book.” Then you do it, okay now I am done with my goal. Oh-oh, now what?
Stephanie… Well, you take one of, one aspect of. (Meaning there are other dreams.)
Frank… Correct.
Seth… Are there any other questions?
Stephanie… Okay so when you said that, when you deal with the idea of belief and faith, how does this work if this is not your play?
Seth… If you have faith that someone else can accomplish something and they don’t you may assist them into a better mood, a better goal. You can help them change. If you have a belief in that person and they succeed you are of course satisfied. But if you have a belief in somebody and they fail, example here a Mr. Madoff. People had a belief that he could keep on delivering what he promised and when he could not everything fell apart for these people. They became angry, they lost what they had, some people became destitute, this was based upon a belief system that this man was infallible and that he could continue to do what he was doing.
Stephanie… Right, so that was him and the idea that he had to be successful.
Seth… Correct.
Stephanie… That’s what we are talking about. One only accepts success, that’s him. But for example, let’s use Peter and his issues right now with the tics. So, his play, that’s his play and I can’t control it but your saying I can assist in terms of the faith and the belief… I can assist but the idea of the faith would be he may have it for the rest of the year, this way.
Seth… Or not.
Stephanie… And I just would deal with however I am going to deal with it?
Seth… Correct. It doesn’t mean you have to like it. It does not mean you have to accept it. It may mean that you may have to chastise him. It may mean you have to pat him on the back and say I understand that you’re being stressful. All these things are factual.
Stephanie… So instead of rejecting it and bringing myself misery in a sense because it’s…
Seth… Correct.
Stephanie… bothersome. You know if I feel like I would be limiting play dates or something if it was out of control.
Seth… Or you may want to limit them because he may become embarrassed. You have no idea of which way to go; you have to be open; you have to have faith that you will find a correct solution to his problem.
Stephanie… Like trying different things.
Seth… Correct.
Stephanie… You know, like the idea he takes Bill’s opinion harder than mine so he incorporates…
Seth… Bill is the male.
Stephanie… Right, so if he instructs him, he may take it a little more seriously than (from) me.
Seth… Correct.
Frank… So in terms of work with patients who are very negative, who are troubled, the idea of helping them with their faith in self is paramount?
Seth… Nothing is paramount.
Frank… It’s important.
Seth… It is important.
Frank… Okay.
Seth… Are there any other questions?
Let me leave you with this: success is always pleasurable in whatever system you are dealing with yet failure when placed in a faith system will allow you to fulfill your needs. Your wants will be lessened, and your ultimate success will be guaranteed. A hardy good evening to all.
(Session ended at 10:00.)
